<u>Step 8</u>:

Use your microballoons mixture to start filling in areas with sharp, compound curves; narrow, hard to get to areas; and to radius those corners.

Pictured first, below, is the cowl mold for the P-47. Most radial engined planes have cowls with a sharplyradiused,compound curve. It is easier just to fill most of this in and soften the curve enough that the cloth will conform and lay down nicely.


One suggestion to avoid one of my rookie mistakes:

To avoid air bubbles getting trapped underneath and thenshowing up on whatwill end up being on the exterior of your finished cowl, do not pour blobs of filler at various places around the curve. Use gravity and the weight of the mixture to your advantage by pouring slowlyin one spot, directly over the epoxy that is already there. Angle the mold sothe expoxy spreads out. As it does,it will automatically displace the air without any getting trapped below the weight and thickness of the epoxy, unable to escape.